Crossroads: Choices and Consequences in History
Lesson Plan Title: Japanese Internment: National Security or National Disgrace?
Thesis: Following on the heels of the devastating Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, America rallied behind President Franklin Roosevelt as he delivered his Day of Infamy speech to Congress, declaring war on Japan and the Axis powers on December 8, 1941.
War is a time of great decisions: a critical Crossroads of tremendous consequence. War readiness and National Security were of preeminent concern for the United States. Regarding the latter, a crossroads was reached when the question of what to do with potential enemy aliens on our own soil faced politicians and a concerned American public. Over 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent came under new scrutiny, and the critical decision of their internment for the duration of the war, would henceforth strike a dichotomy between adherents to national security and defenders of basic democratic principles.
(The proposed project will involve students researching original documents, archived interviews, newspaper articles, online research, and oral interview with persons on both sides of the theme/issue.)
Primary Sources: The following list is a sample of online sources focused on the Japanese-American Internment topic:
Primary Source Documents:
Comprehensive archive of primary source documents and photographs of Japanese-American internment.
Archive of San Francisco newspaper articles on Japanese-American internment.
Panoramic Photo collages by Masumi Hayashi. Recent photos of relocation camp sites. Also includes audio interviews of internees.
Santa Ynez High School oral interviews of World War II and the Homefront ONLINE.
Teaching Strategies/Techniques: Students will be introduced to the subject of Japanese American internment with the following lesson components:
1. "Tea Party" of poem by Rose Brown. Students will play historical detective as they share lines from the poem, and collect evidence of what the subject of the writing is, what type of writing it is, what history is described, etc. The poem is then passed out, and read.
2. A slide show of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with students role-play reading first hand accounts of the attack from the American and Japanese perspective.
3. Proposing the Crossroads question of whether to inter Japanese-Americans or not, students will be formed into research groups of 4 to judge history, and propose the course of action America should have taken.
4. Research groups will conduct online research of the many sites on Japanese-American relocation, and gather evidence on both sides of the issue. Students will also conduct interviews with people who lived during this period of history. The ultimate step will be to convene a panel discussion/conference discussing the issue and their findings.
Assessment Strategies:
Assessment will vary according to the above activities. I give participation points for activities (i.e. steps 1 and 2.) A rubric will be established to define the grading criteria for the research, the written report of groups, and the culminating panel discussion.
Suggested Time: Five to eight days.
Previous Primary Source Use in Teaching Career: I have extensively used primary resources in my career. Some examples include the following:
The Write Picture use of historic photography.
My homepage with classroom assignments and inservices.
